CONTRACEPTION AFTER CHILDBIRTH – THE IMMEDIATE PUERPERIUM
The joy, happiness and sense of achievement in the birth of the baby may be inhibited by recent memories of traumatic delivery, a painful perineum, difficulties with breast feeding or postnatal depression. Sexual matters seem an irrelevance. Several studies have shown that women experience a marked reduction in sexual activity and enjoyment in the third trimester and for up to three months postpartum. This may be nature’s way of ensuring the maximum preservation of the infant by giving it the mother’s undivided attention during the most vulnerable period of its life. Such a view is borne out by the tradition of primitive societies that the newly delivered woman remains with the other women until the baby is seen to thrive. In some races and some religions sexual intercourse is forbidden until the lochia ceases, or while breast feeding continues, although these tend by inference to be polygamous societies.
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